Obama’s immigration order temporarily blocked, appeal on the way

An immigration order that was set to take affect Wednesday to stop the deportation of young immigrants that were brought to the US illegally as children, has been halted by a federal judge.

The temporary cease on the order was granted by US District Judge Andrew Hanen who, after receiving requests from 26 states, reviewed arguments that resulted in the granting of a preliminary injunction.

In his memorandum, Judge Hanan said he felt the lawsuit should go ahead, and that without a preliminary injunction, states will “suffer irreparable harm in this case.”

His injunction will temporarily block President Obama’s executive action at allowing a lawsuit to permanently stop the order from making its way through the courts.

Judge Hanen also wrote, “The genie would be impossible to put back into the bottle,” adding that the legalization of millions of illegal immigrants is a “virtually irreversible” action.

The other part of the president’s order that raised concern was the extension of deportation protection to the parents of US citizens and permanent residents. This part of Obama’s order was set to begin May 19.

A statement by Josh Eaarnest, White House press secretary, said that, “The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws — which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system.”

He added, “The district court’s decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect and the Department of Justice has indicated that it will appeal that decision.”

An appeal will be overseen by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Hanan, who was nominated to federal court by then-President George W. Bush, has been in federal court since 2002.

Earlier in the year, the Republican-controlled house passed a spending bill of $39.7 billion that would fund the Department of Homeland Security until the end of the year. However, Congressional Republicans have since vowed to stop Obama’s immigration order by cutting Homeland Security off financially.

The fate of the bill remains unclear as Senate Republicans are six votes short of the necessary 60-votes needed to advance legislation.